On 23 September 2014, 26 year old poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, from the Marshall Islands, addressed the Opening Ceremony of the UN Secretary-General's Climate Summit. Kathy was selected from among over 500 civil society candidates in an open, global nomination process conducted by the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service.
We had the honor and pleasure to produce and direct a film that is the visual representation of Kathy’s poem combined with footage that captures the unprecedented moments of the People’s March globally and climate actions. The poem title: 'Dear Matafele Peinem’ - a written promise to her daughter about how her and many others in the world are dedicated to fighting climate change, received standing ovation at the General Assembly during the Inaugural Ceremony of the UN Climate Summit.
More about Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner:
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, 26, a Marshallese poet is a co-founder of an environmental NGO and a teacher. She is also a journalist, poet and spoken-word artist. She was selected from hundreds of people to address the opening ceremony. Her selection was the culmination of weeks of effort that followed an open call from the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) in July for nominations of civil society speakers and attendees for the Summit. By the 15 August deadline, 544 people had been nominated from 115 countries.
Credits:
"Dear Matafele Peinem”
Poem and Performance by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
Creative-Innovation Agency: The Global Brain
A special thank you to all of the young filmmakers around the world who submitted footage for the Action4Climate.org competition (an initiative of connect4climate.org/) and gave us permission to freely use their work in this video.
Director / Producer: Natalia Vega-Berry
Executive Producer: Michael Tracy
Director Visual: Natalia Vega-Berry
Co-Directors: Jenna Pool / David Joshua Ford
Project Coordinator: Isha Ohja
Storyboard: Annabelle Tracy
Post Production: Cutters Studios
Executive Producer: Elizabeth Krajewski
Editor: Steve Bell
Assistant Editors: Austin Rauterkus, Cameron Yergler, Casey Swoyer
Sound Engineer: Eric Thompson
Flame / finish: Moises Tavera
Music: Yessian
Music: Andrew Knox Music Productions, Inc.
Music Title: "Imparting the Atmosphere"
Composer: Derek Whitacre
Publisher: Alibi Music
A special thank you to the many organizations and individuals around the world who contributed visuals for this project, including:
350.org
#Action4Climate filmmakers and Connect4Climate.org
Adrian Arbib
Anglican Alliance
Australian Medical Students Association
Avaaz
Canadian Youth Climate Coalition
CGIAR CCAFS
Climate Ride
Friends of the Earth Europe
Get Up! Action for Australia
India Echo Channel
Jack Niedenthal
Kevin Buckland
Molly Mazilu
Mothers Out Front
The Nature Conservancy
Press TV UK
Project Survival Media
Source Project
Sven Eberlein
The World Bank
"A special thank you to the following, who went out of their way to provide invaluable services, support and assistance for this project:
Young & Rubicam
Cutters Studios
